I attended a webinar this morning for VueZone, a home security camera system. VueZone allows any user to have their own security camera system on a budget, with an amazingly simple 5-minute setup that anyone can install, without any prior expertise. Whether you run your own business or just want to check in on your children while you’re away from home, VueZone has an option for you. You can learn more about this product on VueZone.com.

I am being entered to win a VueZone system for this post.

This post is sponsored by PerfectYourself.com.

If you were offered a free makeover, would you take it? Being a fashionista and makeup queen, I am always reinventing myself and trying new looks. Whether it’s dying my hair, wearing new fashions or putting on a new eyeshadow color, playing dress-up has never gotten old for me. It’s just so much fun!

Of course, some makeovers are more drastic. One of my not-so-guilty-pleasures is watching reality shows about plastic surgery – I find it fascinating to hear the patients tell their stories and why they chose to have cosmetic procedures done. And it seems that plastic surgery is becoming more and more commonplace: I was recently introduced to the concept of a “Mommy Makeover”, or procedures for women who are unhappy with their bodies post-pregnancy. I think it’s important for moms to take the time to care for themselves, but I feel there is far too much pressure on women to lose weight immediately after giving birth. I think new moms should be able to enjoy some downtime with their infant without feeling like they have to run to the gym instantly!

That being said, I can see how plastic surgery could benefit some people. I think for someone with healthy self-esteem and a legitimate concern, a cosmetic procedure could potentially provide positive results. If cosmetic surgery were free and came with no risks, I’d be tempted to look into it myself – but I don’t foresee a tummy tuck anywhere in my future, so I think I’ll just stick to watching Dr. 90210!

Readers: Have you ever gotten a makeover?

This post is my entry into the “Ultimate S’Mores Prize Pack Giveaway”, exclusively for Mom Bloggers Club members!

How does your family enjoy S’Mores? Do you make them during holidays, while camping, or maybe during backyard barbeques? We enjoy ours “just because”. Anytime we have a bonfire on the beach, S’Mores are a must-have. I have so many good memories of digging my toes into the sand, roasting marshmallows while laughing with friends. For fun ideas, recipes, and a chance to enter the “S’Mores Instant Win” game (UPC required), check out SmoresSmiles.com.

Yesterday, you read my review of Reed & Barton cutlery from DiningRoomsDirect.com, one of the 200+ stores in the CSN Network. Whether you’re shopping for bathroom vanities, rugs, lamps, or even a bed for your puppy, you could literally spend hours looking through all of their online shops. So when CSN asked if I’d like to receive a gift certificate to pick out an item from any of their stores, I was spoilt for choice! It was a tough decision, but I’ve decided that I will use my gift certificate on something from Cookware.com. You know how I love kitchen gadgets, so stay tuned for my review!

In the meantime, you can read my past reviews of CSN stores below:

Reed & Barton Cutlery from DiningRoomsDirect.com
Alpine Bird Bath from TeakWickerandMore.com

The CSN Network is providing me with a complimentary gift certificate in exchange for this coverage on my site.

Contest Corner experienced a period of downtime this morning and on Saturday afternoon – this was caused by DNS errors and has now been rectified. As you have probably noticed, the old URL of contest-corner.blogspot.com brings up a re-director page from Google, leading readers to the new location. This has made it difficult for some of my readers to access the new site, especially because all of my search engine results have been renamed to “Redirecting” – see what I mean on this page. I’m the #1 search result, but no one would know what the article is about! I was receiving an error message on the URL forwarding page from Blogger regarding the DNS address, which I thought might be causing some of these issues. I contacted tech support as per their advice, but unfortunately they did not understand the problem and made changes to the DNS which caused this downtime. I apologize for the inconvenience and frustration and thank you for bearing with me! I felt so sick to see my blog go down for hours.

Because of this downtime making my giveaways inaccessible, I have extended the entry deadline on all of them by one day. The Tropical Traditions giveaway was accessible on Blogger during this period of time, so I manually transferred over all new entries that were left on Blogger during the downtime; so don’t worry, nothing was lost!

After much nail-biting, all the broken links have been restored! You should be able to navigate all of the content without issue now. We are still experiencing serious technical issues importing all of the old comments over from Blogger, but fortunately none of the current giveaways have been affected by this; so this won’t hamper your enjoyment of the site while we figure out a solution.

I just wanted to post a quick note to let everyone know that we are experiencing some technical difficulties due to the transfer from Blogger. Most of my comments did not transfer over from the new site, and when I attempted to import them using an alternate method, some of the links in the navigation bar stopped working. Fortunately, my current giveaways have not been affected, so you can still enter those are normal. I am working hard to get these issues rectified ASAP – thanks for bearing with me during this move!

Welcome to the new and improved Contest Corner! The switchover took place last night, and I was surprised at how smooth and easy the process was. There a few glitches to be worked out today, but you should be able to enjoy the site as normal while I get those fixed. Let me know what you think of Contest Corner’s new home!

After spending the last month learning my way around PHP & CSS and designing the new layout and graphics, the brand new Contest Corner on WordPress is almost ready to go! The next step involves importing all of the existing posts and content onto the new host, which will be taking place over the coming days. Once everything is switched over, I will be setting up a 301 redirect from Blogger, so you should be automatically taken to the new site when it’s up. Although I will take every precaution to ensure that the transfer goes as smoothly as possible, there will likely a short period of technical snafus as everything is migrated over – so if the site goes down or has broken links, don’t panic! We will be working hard behind the scenes to remedy it.

Switching all three of my websites over to WordPress has been a time intensive process; once this project is complete, my time will once again be freed up to post lots more fun giveaways and other content. Thank you for bearing with me as I set up the new and improved site – I think you’ll agree that it was well worth it!

Contest Corner

Promote Your Page Too
Contest Corner now has its very own Facebook fan page – so if you’re on Facebook, click here to check out the page and become a fan! New blog posts will be linked up automatically to the fan page, so it’s a convenient way for social networking junkies to keep up-to-date on the latest giveaways.